Yemen Eco|News:
Sana’a forces spokesman, General Yahya Saree, announced on Sunday evening that three boats belonging to the Yemeni naval forces were attacked by the United States, which led to the loss of the crews of those boats while performing regular tasks to protect international navigation and enforce the ban on the passage of Israeli ships in the Red Sea, revealing at the same time a Yemeni operation that targeted a container ship that was heading to Israel and refused to respond to warning calls.
In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Yemen Eco, Yahya Saree said: “While the Yemeni armed forces exercised their official routine tasks in establishing security, stability and maritime navigation, in addition to fulfilling their humanitarian and moral duty to prevent Israeli ships from passing through the Red Sea in solidarity with the Palestinian people, the American enemy forces attacked three Yemeni naval boats, killing and losing 10 members of the naval forces,” he said in a statement.
He added, “The Yemeni armed forces, in the midst of the battle of attribution of these martyrs for Palestine, confirms that the American enemy bears the consequences of this crime and its military actions in the Red Sea to protect the Israeli ships will not prevent Yemen from carrying out its religious, moral and humanitarian duty in support of the people of Palestine and Gaza,” according to the statement.
He also called on “the rest of the countries not to engage in the dangerous American behavior because of the negative repercussions that may affect everyone.”
In another operation, Saree said in his statement, “The naval forces of the Yemeni armed forces succeeded in carrying out a military operation targeting the Maersk Hangzhou container ship that was heading to the ports of occupied Palestine, with appropriate naval missiles.”
“The targeting operation came after the ship’s crew refused to respond to the warning calls of the Yemeni naval forces,” he said.
The statement said that “the Yemeni armed forces confirm what was stated in their previous statements regarding preventing the passage of all Israeli ships, or heading to the ports of occupied Palestine, with their full keenness on maritime traffic to all destinations except the Israeli entity,” according to the statement, which renewed the advice “to all countries not to be drawn into the American plans aimed at igniting conflict in the Red Sea and that they will not hesitate to confront any aggression against our country and our people”.
The US Navy said earlier that it had fought a battle with naval gunboats belonging to the Sanaa government in the southern Red Sea, sinking three of them and killing their crews.
The US Central Command published a statement monitored by the “Yemen Eco” website stating that “on December 31, at 6:30am (Sanaa time), the container ship Maersk Hangzhou issued a second distress call in less than 24 hours stating that it was attacked by four small boats belonging to the Houthis supported by Iran.”
The statement added that “small boats, which were launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, fired on the service crew and small arms weapons on the Maersk Hangzhou ship. They reached a distance of 20 meters from the ship and tried to board the ship.”
It follows “The contracted security team on the Maersk Hangzhou ship returned fire, while American helicopters from the aircraft carrier Eisenhower and the battleship Gravely responded to the distress call and while issuing verbal calls to the small boats, the small boats opened fire on the American helicopters equipped with a crew of weapons.”
And small arms. US Navy helicopters responded by firing in self-defense, sinking three of the four small boats, killing the crew members, and the fourth boat fled the area, causing no harm to American personnel or equipment.”
Hours before this statement, the Central Command had issued another statement, which was monitored by “Eco”, in which it stated that “the Bargess U S Grafly shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles while responding to the Houthi attack on a merchant ship”.
It added that “at around 8:30pm (Sanaa time), the container ship Maersk Hangzhou reported being hit by a missile while crossing the southern Red Sea. The container ship owned by Denmark and flying the Singapore flag requested help. The two battleships, USS Gravely and USS Labon, responded.
The ship is reportedly seaworthy and no casualties were reported.”
“During the response, the US ship USS Gravely shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles that were launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen towards ships,” it said.